Honoured

The New Year’s Honours List in the UK sees an OBE awarded to Dr John Hemery.

John for many years has worked as Director of the Centre for Political and Diplomatic Studies, developing sophisticated training modules for the new Diplomatic Services emerging across the former communist world, plus latterly different courses for EU officials and EU member states aimed at improving their efficiency in communicating/negotiating and other skills.

Having worked with John on some of these courses in my own post-FCO life, I know just how much of his work and care has gone in to making them so lively and effective. Hundreds if not thousands of European officials have benefited from his work.

Credit where credit is due.

Also nice to see my old pal Bill Patey, now HM Ambassador in Riyadh, getting a Knighthood.

Bill and I were FCO Resident Clerks together back when the Reagan Administration bombed Libya. If I recall correctly, Bill was on duty when the Reagan letter to Margaret Thatcher arrived, late in the night, asking for permission to use UK bases for the air-raids. He and Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe mulled over it in their dressing-gowns.

The UK in Saudi Arabia website does not yet register this fine accomplishment of the Ambassador. But it does carry some prominent linguistic infelicities, including this first one which has been up for two months(!):